Australia's Abandoned Railways: the Casino to Murwillumbah Line in 2022 

As someone who used to work at Broadmeadow railway station in the 80's this was quite sad to watch. The line back then was incredibly popular and we booked many passengers to Murwillumbah. It is short term thinking as really the best answer would have been to upgrade and expand the line to connect further up and go to Brisbane.

What a great commentary and beautiful diction by the commentator.

A train, a plane, a car, a bus, will take you to the heart of us...

Fantastic guys thank you. The line needs to be reinstated with the massive amount of home stamp duty that the NSW government has received in this booming region.

Thank you for this story with photos. Having travelled by train to school from Billinudgel to Burringbar over a number of years aa well as going to 'town' in both Mullumbimby and Murwillumbah. The occasional trip to Lismore for special occasions too. One of these trips was to see Queen Elizabeth 11 for her visit to Lismore in 1954. So many memories were aroused here.

I thank you for using the correct pronunciation of all the towns, especially MurWILLumbah, which most, including the locals, pronounce as MurWOOLumbah! Also Burringbar and Mooball, which I've heard pronounced as Burr-ingbar and Moo-ball. Nice short documentary of what has now been lost.

If never reinstated, this line could still make a killer heritage railway, especially if run all the way to Byron bay station

Thanks, Ken. Great job mate. Love that part of the country.

2:39 These photos of the sugar cane by the train track are amazing, because I've seen them before. Not in real life, but in cartoon form on The Big Lez Show. It makes sense because the guy behind that cartoon is from Tweed Heads.

My wife remembers getting the train from Lismore to Byron Bay on the weekends to go surfing. Very short-sighted response by the NSW government to close that railway line.

Always good to capture history before it is lost. Thevrail trail that is being built is a great use of the asset that was the train line.

Without knowing it would soon go, my daughter and I came up from Sydney on the train, all the way to Mur'bah. The section from Casino towards Byron Bay had a rocking action from side to side that was interesting, so much so perhaps that there was a bus service covering that part a fortnight later.

Interesting content, watched the whole thing. I would also like to add to the noise in encouraging you to use YOUR own authentic, human, Aussie voice! Cheers mate!

Very interesting. Thanks mate

Not only do they need to reinstate this line, they must extend it to the Gold coast airport and then link back up with the Brisbane line. Stations restored at Murwillunbah and Byron Bay, a station constructed at Ballina and Lismore restored. This will allow international tourists to jump straight on a train to Byron Bay and Ballina. On the northen extension you have a station at Tweed Heads also, then the GC airport, then have the line join back up to the Brisbane line at Robina. Then run services from Brisbane to Casino, even have an XPT service to Sydney take that route. Regular services run from GC airport to Casino (maybe Ballina if traffic past there can't justify it), and Have 1 return service per day from Brisbane, all stops to Casino. It is one peice of infrastructure that will be heavily used if an option, and will greatly benefit all towns it stops at in the long run. It's a no brainer to have a rail connection to those areas from an international airport. There is even a case to be made for taking the line after Byron bay down through Lennox Head, Ballina, Evans Head, Yamba, Townsend(back area of Maclean) and then rejoin the main line at Grafton. It's just a matter of political will with such a large undertaking. Did I mention it can carry heavy freight as well..

Ironically, xpt services are now in big demand due to the exorbitant prices of domestic airfares.

As a person who was born & raised in Western Sydney & have loved watching the North Coast trains ( including the Brisbane Limited ) go North to Newcastle etc & later return before moving to Perth in W.A. in the 80's - I love the fact that you've covered this very scenic line as I recall the Murwillumbah XPT service still in service with what only seems to be a few years ago now but thankfully the line still passes through Taree where my parents live so when we head to their place on holidays - it's always great to visit the Mid North Coast , if only the line could be replaced in full size as a "Heritage Rail" thing or a miniature rail thing for visitors to enjoy again but that'll be up to someone who has some money that could make it happen. Thanks for doing this video & sharing it to everyone.

Just love it how they put fences up to stop people walking across the bridge, instead of letting people be responsible for their OWN actions. But at the same time don't want to pull it down either

A very good video, showing and explaining clearly what is left. It's a great pity, but obviously the local population saw no need for it.

well done !!

Interesting thanks

watching this and crying

Thanks .. A little bit of memorabilia .. Think back to the men who built it .. good video Ken ..

Good brother

Does anybody have any information on the railway/tram line that used to run from Casino to at least Piora? I can clearly see the remains of where the track ran (via Google Earth), but no other information?

Very short sighted decision to close it. It would be a great tourist railway or could run a light line

Nice to see the old Murbah anbd Lismore stations. I remember well using those stations for travel in 1957 and 1958. I also note the comments below about Ballina, but one should remember this was a separate spur line, closed long before the Murbah line itself.

10:10 The block telegraph poles went right into Murwillumbah yard before 1991 as seen on the right then somebody at section management decided to pull them all out individually. 0:54 There is someone's new premises for a Byron Bay Party Hire Business S. M. Partico if for some reason the visitor information centre closes. 4:31 That is a rare photo, even in 1997 Billinudgel was nothing like this and there looks like there was a loop here at some point. This must be Billinudgel in late 1989 or something? One of Brian Alexander's photographs perhaps?

We rode the rail trail Murwilumbah to Mooball in July 2023. A most impressive facility. Told it will get to Casino, eventually. Don't hold your breath! Thanks for doing this video. Most informative!

A result of politics and economics, common on NSW branch line closures, great video Ken and lovely narration, you should get that lass to do your "KRD Country TV" intro and bump off that yank girl. Those two brick based steam loco water towers look like sisters to the one at Condobolin yard and the one that used to be at Carlachy Tank? Really enjoyed that Ken, I was last on that line in early 1980's, I wonder if the small frame is still in Lismore signal box?

part of this line was built by my Husbands family - GC Willcocks

I just recently purchased a new bicycle and im keen to get down to Murwillumbah to check out the rail trail.

You didn't mention the little Simplex Rail Tractor which used to shunt Byron Bay yard and resided in a little shed of its own at Byron Bay North. I thought it was still there adjacent to the Kendall St level crossing (it can be seen on Google Maps street view).

Another stupid government act in the pocket of road transport it was a beautiful trip I travelled many times.

Usually the line would need to be closed by the act of parliament to use it for rail trails

Just as the banks are closing in rural areas so to are the rail lines it seems to me 🤔

THE LINE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CLOSED, ALL THE SLEEPERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH CONCRETE SLEEPERS. IT SHOULD BE REOPENED, WITH A BETTER ALIGNMENT, AND LEVELED AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, TUNNEL AND VIADUCTS. THE LINE COULD THEN HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO ROMA STREET STATION WITH A TRAIN EVERY 2-4 HOURS BETWEEN ROMA STREET AND CASINO

Ken Sams was from Casino

Closing this one was nothing short of crminal, and is a good measure of the incompetence of transport planners!

I'll record the audio of the script for this for free if you like. Great video but can't stand computer voices.

Shame it was let go.

भारत की लगातार बड़ती जनसंख्या से बहुत परेशान हु। मुझे सुंदर और कम जनसंख्या वाला ऑस्ट्रेलिया में आना है । 💐🍁🌹🥰🥰👌🇮🇳

Absolute disgrace that this line was closed, it should have been upgraded to link with the Gold Coast Line, this in return would have provided many jobs and a boost for local businesses, the only train that should be stopped is the Politician’s GRAVY TRAIN, the Motorail to & from Murwillumbah was a very popular train in it’s day & was always well patronised unlike the Political lies that it was being withdrawn because it only ran @ 40% capacity, I remember taking my mother to join the train at Wauchope one night to travel to Sydney & the train was that long it had to make three stops @ the platform.

For any town, large or small, which had a rail service, for that service to be removed is an *ABJECT DERELICTION OF DUTY* by a State Government and should be classed as an *ACT OF HIGH TREASON* by that government against the populations of those towns.

How sad. Very disappointing really.

leave the rails alone not to be lifted ,rent stations out to rail fans ,you could also run jiggers for sight seeers ,kick the bloody greens out ,,like germany..and things will change

This video uses an AI voice! It would have been much better if it was a real person

Typical Gov't short sightedness and cost cutting.

Not entirely the facts....

The Ai talking is awful, just use your own voice... Gotta be better than the robot!!

Worst robot voice ever